Wednesday, February 21, 2007

"Every minute of flying-time that we can save, reduces fuel consumption by an average of 62 litres and CO2 emissions by 160 kilogrammes. Governments are quick to make vacations more expensive with new taxes in the name of the environment. But they are slow to improve the infrastructure. It’s about time they realised what a difference a minute can make," said IATA Director General and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani.

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that there is 12% inefficiency in air traffic management globally. That means up to 73 million tonnes of wasted CO2 emissions and nearly US$13.5 billion in wasted costs," said Bisignani.

"IATA’s work to optimize 350 routes in 2006 yielded 6 million tonnes of CO2 savings. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. We see issues in all continents. The approach to Hong Kong is up to 25 minutes longer than it needs to be. Flying from Sao Paolo to Lima is 9 minutes too long. Johannesburg to London is 10 minutes too long. And flying to Manila from Japan has 5 unneeded minutes. Optimizing routes should not be a battle. It’s a win-win situation for the passenger and for the environment," said Bisignani.

If we can reduce CO2 emissions while making air flight faster, that seems like a no brainer.